Gov 2.0 Week in Review: Summer Heatwave

Government apps, more .gov launches, open government, social media, contests and innovation.

What do you get when you combine summer heat with government technology? Like the rest of the Eastern seaboard, Washington has been beset by a heatwave, which means that air conditioners, linen suits and lemonade are very much in vogue. Before you quip “meltdown,” check out the new mobile apps from the new USA.gov and the new .gov sites that have gone up since the last Gov 2.0 Week in Review.

GovExec’s Aliya Sternstein report on the GSA overhaul of USA.gov, includes the cost, features and new mobile apps available at the redesigned and relaunched site.
Sunlight Foundation designer Ali Felski graded the revamped USA.gov, suggesting a number of potential improvements.

Across the Atlantic, a tight emergency budget in the United Kingdom has a put razor focus on outlays. A BBC report that the UK government had spent thousands on apps led the Cabinet office to suspend development, for the moment, a move that prompted some criticism amongst tech observers in the U.S. Notably, the Cabinet office classifies such apps as a “marketing and advertising” expense.

More on government apps, .gov, open government, social media, contests and innovation after the jump.

There’s a (Government) App for That?

One of the most useful new apps on Apps.USA.gov may be a product recalls app connected to Recall.gov. It’s only available on the Web and for Android, however, unlike the TSA app, which is also on the iPhone. The alternative fuel locator, by contrast, is solely available on the mobile Web. And the UV indicator app is available for BlackBerry, Android and the mobile Web.

Will Apple approve more government apps soon? Keep an eye on Cupertino.

Facebook + 10 Downing Street = Cost Savings?

In what Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes described as “the largest public engagement project ever launched by the British Government,” Downing Street and Facebook announced a initiative today focused on reducing public spending. The partnership adds to the existing online “Spending Challenge” to engage the 26 million British citizens actively using Facebook to do something, namely contributing policy ideas. Notably, a link that the UK Treasury would also be partnering with WikiLeaks on its Spending Challenge is no longer active.

As Nancy Scola points out on techPresident, however, “somewhat confusing matters: Facebook’s involvement in the Treasury Spending Challenge seems limited to, at this point, linking from its Democracy UK page to, yes, a custom-made official British government website.”

The implications of adding – and retaining – young innovators from the tech community to agencies, state houses, councils, courts and legislatures are substantial, particularly as the government becomes increasingly socially networked. Those network effects aren’t negligible, as research into health outcomes as shown. As James Fowler put it, “you must be the change you wish to see in your network.”

Speaking of which, White House deputy CTO for Open Government @BethNoveck joined Twitter. So did the State Department’s Katie Stanton, albeit in a more permanent role: she’s headed west to Twitter to begin work as a VP of international business strategy. As one might expect, she announced the move in a tweet. In an outgoing interview with Nancy Scola in techPresident, Stanton remained diplomatic about innovating in D.C., though she made some key points regarding culture, risk and innovation.

The State Department Published Its Social Media Policy

Tech Updates From The White House

Back in the oven that is Washington summer, President Obama issued a memo to make 500MHz of federal and commercial spectrum available over next 10 years. As the @WhiteHouse Twitter account wryly put it, that means “you Twitterers” will get some more bandwidth. It also means the White House found a way to move the F.C.C.’s broadband plan forward through executive action.

OMB Director Peter Orzag also announced a plan for cutting waste by reforming IT. While the move carries risks in of itself, in terms of freezing upgrades to financial software, federal CIO Kundra undertaking detailed reviews of the highest risk IT projects across the federal government is a step towards accountability. The memo is embedded below:

New .gov Launches Galore

USA.gov may be the biggest government website to see a refresh but a crop of new .gov launches have gone online in recent weeks.

When President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law, federal health officials had 90 days to build a website for the American public to access to critical information on available health insurance plans. Healthcare.gov is that site.

In another news, “agencies responding to the BP oil spill launched a Web site compiling information and updates on the response,” tweeted EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson earlier this week. Check out RestoreTheGulf.gov for more.

The website for First lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” fitness campaign, LetsMove.gov, is online. She’ll be taking questions through an online chat moderated by AOL Health on July 13.

Add “CDO” & “CGI” to list of cool Gov 2.0 job titles: The FCC appointed its first Chief Data Officer, George Elin, and a chief geographic information officer, Michael Byrne. Their domain will be reboot.fcc.gov/data. As Elin wrote in his post on the FCC’s Data Innovation Initiative, they’ll be helping to “help clear away the Agency’s data cruft and keep it cleared away.”

Out at the Aspen Festival, CNN’s Eric Kuhn reported that federal CIO Vivek Kundra and craigslist founder Craig Newmark are “trying to change the government culture from ‘there is a form for that’ to ‘there is an app for that.'”

And in summer fun, Rep. Charles Djou made history a few days ago, when he tweeted that “The House Parliamentarian told me that I’m the first Member of Congress to ever use an iPad during a floor speech.” [Hat tip CNN]

Tweeting from a sub? It could happen. “One of the world’s impossible-to-plug-in places may finally get online,” reports Wired. What to call an underwater tweet? I suggest “ping.”

What else is happening in Gov 2.0?

Inevitably, we’re going to miss some links, so make sure to follow my Gov 2.0 list on Twitter, embedded below. And as always, if you have tips or suggestions, please email them to alex@oreilly.com or leave links in the comments. This week, a special additional plug: For excellent coverage of tech policy throughout the week, subscribe to the digest provided by Tony Romm and Kim Hart at Politico’s new Morning Tech.